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Tuesday, 30 May 2017

Here are links to help with theJeremy Corbyn For PM On June 9 2017 campaign!

Africans For JC (Jeremy Corbyn) Valuesis an
inclusive, African-led socio-political movement that supports the Jeremy Corbyn 10 Point Pledge and is working to bring about a Jeremy
Corbyn/John McDonnell-led Labour Government on June 9 2017

AFJCV(Africans For JC Values) presents in association with TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) and BBM/BMC (BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress):AFJCV GE2017 Celebration & MSF Lake Chad Emergency FundraiserOK, you've been consumed by the GE2017 elections, worked hard canvassing, etc. So join us on the first weekend after the general elections! All welcome - come and unwind, and celebrate hope over fear, and help us raise awareness and funds for Medicins Sans Frontieres' Lake Chad Emergency Appeal.

Book at www.bitly.com/MSFLC by donating whatever you can afford. Event takes place in Russell Square, central London - address provided after booking. The afternoon consists of:

·Zone in on people’s interests, be
it health, education and housing,and remind them whose policies will make a positive impact e.g. Privatisation
of the NHS or public ownership?

·Jeremy Corbyn is not electable or a
strong leader? The popular Labour Manifesto would not have been passed without
Corbyn's leadership.

·Counter arguments about what makes a
strong leader. Is it a person who has no qualms about pushing a nuclear
button or one who invests in peace?

Is
it one who does U turns or one who has strength of character,has consistently been on the side of
the marginalised, supported anti-apartheid movement when it was not popular and Margaret Thatcher
described
Mandela
as a terrorist? A person who has been resilient and not abandoned socialist
values in
spite of negative onslaught from the media and undermining from members of the
Parliamentary Labour Party and Labour Party, and has increased the membership
of the Labour Party – these arew signs of a strong leader!

·Foreign Policy: There is a link
between foreign policy and 'extremism'. Will post links on June 1 at www.bit.ly/JCGE2010Culled from AFJCV (Africans For JC Values)/TAOBQ (The African Or Black Question) mail out via BBM/BMC:

Unite The Union is certainly unequivocal about its support for the Labour Party, as evidenced by the giant banner on the side of its London HQ in Holborn.

Street marketing reminder of some of the events happening this week and next.Click here to book for the Captain Ska Wednesday June 7 Brixton Jamm gig, and here to watch band member and 'Liar Liar' composer Jake Painter and others discuss 'Media Bias: Why Won't The BBC Play "Liar, Liar #GE2017"?' Incidentally, a segment of the video is played on the Victoria Derbyshire-fronted BBC TV prog, as part of the discussion on editorial policy, balance and newsworthiness.

Also click here to watch Akala hold his own defending his position of the general media bias against Jeremy Corbyn on BBC TV's This Week prog. You can fast-foward past Andrew Neil and co,'s preamble to 5.58 to first catch Akala's filmed The Take segment, which precedes his in-studio discussion.

Click here to watch the TAOBQ Liar Liar GE2017 Remix For Labour Supporters And Activists By Kwaku, featuring "very angry" 5 year old Brooke Blair. Whilst you can consume the music for free, and the record was the highest chart entry at no. 4 (way better than the modest top 40 aspirations of band and its supporter The People's Assembly Against Austerity), if you haven't already bought a copy, do consider buying one, to make a political statement and to help the food bank programme in "austerity Britain".

Click here to read NME editorMike Williams' interview with Corbyn, which includes a lot of youth-orientated questions by the mag's readers covering topics such as tuition fees, and the quintessential NME question: Oasis or Blur? Click here to watch the NME Meets Jeremy Corbyn interview in an east London eatery. Judging by where JME's interview took place, it would seem if you want to interview JC for a youth audience, get him into an eatery!

JME encourages his fans to register in order to vote. Note the importance of the youth vote for Labour, if only they can be made to a) register and b) go out and vote! See below to watch and read about JME's interview with Jeremy Corbyn. Again, the importance of the under-25s and under-50s for Labour and Corbyn is highlighted in the George Osbourne-edited Evening Standard.

Well, not much choice here, almost all the artists highlighted in this NME article are voting Labour! Click here to read.

Boy Better Know's JME doesn't simply endorse Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, and encourage the youth to register. He meets the party leader in a north London eatery to quiz him about issues relevant to young people. Click here to watch i-D's 'When JME Met Jeremy Corbyn' video, and below to read the NME coverage, in which JME tells Corbyn he's "so genuine it feels like I'm about to meet my mum's friend".

How often do you find statistics that prominently show Jeremy Corbyn in the lead? Here is one for the "Jeremy Corbyn is NOT electable brigade"!

The AFJCV's home-made 'Afriphobia' banner attracted the attention of some media and Labour staff, who photographed it (see below for more on identity and language) at the Labour Party's launch of its 'Race & Faith Manifesto' last week in Watford. Photographed is moi and Brent Central MP candidate Dawn Butler, who also facilitated the launch, which had Labour bigwigs such as Diane Abbott, Keith Vaz, John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn in attendance. Click here to watch launch.

Politically conscious rapper Lowkey urges young people to register and vote Labour June 8.

“Tory policies have led us to the stage where you have nurses in the NHS using foodbanks. But when you have somebody coming forward saying he will raise the wages of nurses, saying he will abolish tuition fees, he will raise the minimum wage, build one million homes, half of them social housing: this is significant, and this is significant to everyone. Previously, the idea had been that these people are not speaking to us, about us or for us. Jeremy Corbyn is a clear exception to that rule.” Click here to read the full Evolve Politics article, and here to watch Lowkey's on-point Double Down News socio-political analysis.

Another socio-politically aware rapper, Akala, is not only voting Labour, it's the first time he would have ever voted. And it's all because of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party. But he has not come to this decision wearing rose tinted glasses. He recognises the imperfection of Corbyn, and the imperialist history of the Labour party. Nevertheless Corbyn and Labour are our best choise, he opines. Click here to read Akala's Facebook post.

A year ago, before he became an album chart-topping act, Stormzy endorsed Jeremy Corbyn, rhyming: “My man, Jeremy! Young Jeremy, my guy. I dig what he says. I saw some sick picture of him from back in the day when he was campaigning about anti-apartheid and I thought: yeah, I like your energy." Click here to read the NME article.

OK, so we now know that grime artists do not just rap about their endz, being on road, and shanking. Some are politically aware. And so too is the fanbase who recently set up the grime4corbyn.com website, @grime4corbynTwitter handle, and the #grime4corbyn hashtag. They are encouraging grime fans to register and vote Labour. Those who register will have a chance of winning tickets to a 'secret party' in London. The date and venue is yet to be confirmed. Click here to be kept in the loop.

And if you thought reggae sound system MCs were loud, incoherent people, whose job was to hype the selector and the crowd, then you'll be surprised at the political exhortations from these sarf London MCs Lorna Gee, Papa Levi and Papa Benji, who were politicking within the dancehalls of the early to mid-1980s. The slides are provided courtesy of Dr William Henry a.k.a. Leslie Lyrics, who spoke to the contents of the slides during his Reggae Research Network presentation last Friday in Liverpool.

Performance poet and story-teller Grace Quansah a.k.a. Akuba puts her frustrations against 7 years of Tory rule into a "long poem", for which her son has created a video and music bed. Click here to watch.

When educationalist and community activist Bro Toyin Agbetu, who has not voted since the Blairite Labour government of twenty years ago, decides to ditch his political party and support Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party, then you know there must be compelling reasons. Click here to find out from the Ligali video.And for those making "white man survivor" accusations, note that it's only the Conservative Party that's fixated on the Corbyn personality, based on the focus of their ads, etc. Majority of those Africans supporting Corbyn and the Labour Party do so either because of Corbyn's 10 Point Pledge, click here, and/or the party's manifesto, click here!

We aren't sure whether 5 year Brooke Blair would vote Conservatives or Labour, if she had the vote. But we're certain her politics isn't Blairite! Although she might be prone to a wee bit of exaggeration, for a 5 year old, not only is she articulate, she's forthright about her politics - if only she had the vote! Click here to watch angry Brooke give Theresa May a piece of her mind, as she asks for more homes to be built (no doubt targeting the Conservatives' austerity ideology), and a cessation of wars. This RT.com version is part of its news item on homelessness, and has Brooke's mum giving context to how Brookes ended up making her videoed appeal.

Identity politics can not be avoided once certain peoples or discriminations are separated and highlighted on their own. Take for instance BEM (Black, Ethnic Minority), once the over-arching identifier mainly used for non-Europeans. Today, there's a proliferation of terms, such as BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic). Some of us say, if the Asian have extricated themselves, what does the amorphous 'Black' stand for? If, as we believe, it stands people of African heritage, let's be identified by our name. Hence the AAEM (African, Asian, Ethnic Minority) terminology. For more on terminology, click here to read TAOBQ Responds: We Wouldn’t Write ‘Afro-Caribbean’ Today, But Is ‘People Of Colour’ OK Now?

30 years since its launch in the UK, and particularly as we're in the UN's International Decade For People Of African Descent, some of us have moved from talking about Black History Month, and use African History Month (or Season).

And, what's missing among those "ism"s and "bia"s is Afriphobia! It's about time 'race' equality organisations and activists, unions, political parties, politicians and journalists, start calling anti-African racism by it's name: Afriphobia, spelt with an "i"!

It's almost 1 year since we submitted an Africans For JC Values-led letter to the Chakrabarti Inquiry, which at least mentioned Afriphobia in the same breath as anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in its report. Click here to read Call It By Its Name: Afriphobia Is Racism Against African People open letter.

Monday, 22 May 2017

Ghanaian-born Addai Sebo, the person who conceived the idea of marking Black (which we now call African) History Month in the UK in October, was recently in London where he recorded a video message that was delivered to participants at the African History Month UK Network launch, which took place on May 13 2017 at Unite The Union's London headquarters.

You can read the full text at the bottom of this post, or click here for the video version.

Among the launch attendees, we say a special thank you to Bro Emmanuel of Word Power Books, Tony Warner of Black History Walks, Avril Nanton of Avril's Walks and Talks, Devon Thomas of The Black Heritage Group, Eku McGred, creator of 'The African Child' resources, Celine Akigwe of Afristoricals, and Kubara Zamani of Nubiart Diary. Bro Kwaku is the Network co-ordinator., who made a presentation entitled From Black History Month To African History Month 30 Years On... The presentation highlighted how Black History Month (BHM) was introduced in Britain, where it's at, and where it should be going, especially this year, as we mark BHM's 30th anniversary; and history's role in addressing UN's IDPAD (International Decade For People Of African Descent) initiative.

For more details about the African History Month UK Network, which aims to be a hub that connects and disseminates information about community African history delivery throughout the year across the UK, contact Kwaku, btwsc@hotmail.com.

The week before, Brother Addai Sebo joined us at the African Histories Revisited-organised From Mangrove Nine To Guerrilla: A Community Dialogue On Representation Of African British event at the University Of Westminster Marylebone campus, where he spoke about having "sat at the feet" of the likes of Chancellor Williams, John Henrik Clarke, Ben-Jochannan, and Frances Cress Welsing, whilst in exile in the US. Addai Sebo is pictured below receiving a copy of 'African Voices: Quotations By People Of African Descent'book from community activist Ama Gueye. Attendees included Tony Warner of Black History Walks, Devon Thomas of The Black Heritage Group, Bro Andrew Muhammed a.k.a The Investigator, and former British Black Panther Movement member Liz Obi.

I have been in London the past two weeks and I am on my way back to Ghana. I came to confer with Ansel Wong and Robert Lee on how best our collective African community can organise itself to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Black History Month this coming October and prepare the way for our youth to take over from those of us who initiated the cause of Black History Month. We strongly feel that the time has come to pass on the baton to a well prepared and groomed younger generation. I thank Brother Kwaku for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the African conscientisation work of Kwaku along the instructions of Kwame Nkrumah’s CONSCIENCISM. Brother Kwaku, well done for working so hard along with Serwah to uplift the AFRICAN PERSONALITY. We must free ourselves from mental enslavement so as to be sacredly conscious of our African identity and reality. Such is the abiding task and challenge of the institution of the month of October as our own sacred space and period of self-examination and renewal.

Black History Month is African History Month as African History Month is Black History Month. As Peter Tosh sang: “No Matter where you come from so long as you are black you are an African”. Black History Month is Afrocentric in its intent and purpose. The essence of Black History Month is the space it occupies in the annual British Calendar of events. It is this space that we should hold sacred, protect and enhance in our collective interest. It is this space that we should fill each year with content that gives meaning to our life and answers the challenges of our time. The space has been created for you to manage it in our collective self-interest. The month of October therefore is your space. It is yours and you must consciously own this space and make the correct choices to define the space in our collective self-interest. Each one of you, so far as you think and know, accept and respect yourself as to why you are an African, is and must be the manifest content of Black History Month. A liberated and enlightened African constitutes the manifested content of Black History Month. He or she who says and understands I AM AFRICAN I AM PROUD or I AM BLACK I AM PROUD is a manifestation of the social and economic purpose of Black History Month.

Black History Month is your space and so hold on to and shape that space in the collective interest of our African community sojourning in the United Kingdom.

The time has come for us to prepare ourselves to pick up from where Marcus Garvey left off with the BACK TO AFRICA MOVEMENT. There must be a conscious and organized movement Back to Africa. Diaspora Africa has a critical role to play in the urgent need for Mother Africa to MAKE UP, CATCH UP AND SURPASS IN ALL AREAS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND SECURITY. OCTOBER therefore is our sacred month of individual, family and collective self-examination of our future in the present. October is the period for us to reflect on our collective destiny and come out with solutions to resolve our state of under-development as clarified by the intellectual work of Walter Rodney and Kwame Nkrumah. We must amend or make up, catch up and surpass because as Marcus Garvey taught us: “If we did it before, we can do it again”.

This coming October will mark the 30th anniversary of Black History Month and you are gathered now to reflect on these 30 years, look at lessons learnt and let the benefit of hindsight guide you in your preparations to celebrate and honour the contributions of Africans to world civilisation from antiquity to the present and the positive impact that Mother Africa’s beholden children sojourning in the United Kingdom continue to make to British life as did Septimius Severus and Augustine. Black History Month is therefore a period of self-examination and intellectual preparation for the future safety and development of Mother Africa and her children “both at home and abroad”. This meaning and character of Black History Month is enshrined in the chosen symbol, SANKOFA (i.e. Retrieving the Past is No Taboo). We must imprint this metaphoric bird “looking back to move forward” in our consciousness and display it all over. You must catch the depth of meaning of the SACRED SANKOFA BIRD superimposed over the skyline of London. The wise is spoken to in proverbs. It is not a taboo to retrieve the past.

Septimius Severus was an African Roman Emperor of Rome from AD 193 to 211 and it was he who came to England to protect Britain from the “savages from the North”. He rebuilt the Hadrian’s Wall and gave Britain hundreds of years of peace as a result of the protective institutions he built and left behind. Septimius Severus did not assimilate as even his food was imported then directly from Africa.

St. Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430) was one of the most prolific geniuses that humanity has ever known and who gave meaning to Christianity and Christian life. He was an African born in modern day Algeria. His influence informed the life and work of St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. AD 605), originally sent to England from Rome by Pope St. Gregory The Great to convert the Anglo-Saxons in to Catholicism. Your African ancestor, St. Augustine, was described as the “The Father of Catholicism”.

You are AFRICAN AND PROUD just like Emperor Septimius Severus with his DNA – Directly Nurtured African - well engrained. Believe in yourself and train and shape your mind so that your DNA recaptures its Directly Nurtured African personality as Kwame Nkrumah taught us.

Black History Month is yours and the protection and advancement of this sacred space lies in your self-consciousness as a proud African.

The First Graderscreening and mini open discussion led by history consultant Kwaku on the value of education and British colonial rule in Kenya. + book stall. Presented by BTWSC in association with WSDG. Westminster City Hall, Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QP (Victoria), Friday Nov. 9, 6-8pm: www.ahmfirstgrader.eventbrite.com